One of the first things that might surprise you about Hertz is that Hertz is no longer Hertz the one man techno fabster but a two man project. The second is the first half of this project, Pierre J (the other being Petter B) has been making internationally acclaimed and commercial dance tracks since the mid nineties. Since the inception of Hertz the name has been side by side with all the leading stars of the genre – Valentino Kanzyani, Axel Karakasis, Marco Nastic, Cave, Ignition Technician and Lars Klein etc. – continuously developing and pushing tough, dirty dance floor techno. Creator of two imprints - tech house Q Records and the influential techno label Sway, Pierre’s credentials are long. Born in the 70s and brought up on the best of the 80s electro synth movement, by 1991 his DJing career was marked by residencies across his native Gothenburg and coming second in the Swedish National DMC DJ Competition. The European and World DMC Championship final followed, his reputation grew and so began the production of chart topping tracks for all the big labels such as Warner, Polygram, EMI, Sony, BMG, Virgin, winning producer of the year in the Swedish Dance Music Awards in 1995 and nominated again in 1997. By 2001 Pierre began moving away from the commercial side of music and began releasing on labels such as Defected, SAW, Primate, Recycled Loops, Zync and of course, his own Sway imprint. Since then tracks including the classic Julia, Big Bang, and Recreate which was The Dance Valley Festival offical tune, kept Hertz at the forefront of the techno scene. But as already mentioned, Hertz truly is a game of two halves. Petter B’s introduction in 2007 to the Hertz mix, having completed numerous releases together, sees Hertz evolve into its second phase of existence. Combining their DJ and production talents creates the perfect partnership, intent on making the kind of tough, intelligent and fun techno that we love at Party Proactive.

So, hello and welcome, Pierre and Petter! My first question has to be, who are you Petter?! Tell us something of yourself and how you came to produce tracks with Pierre…

Petter: I have always been into music in one way or another. It all started at the family electric organ when I was about four years old. I sat there for hours trying out sounds, rhythms and playing with harmonies. I actually found some sheets of paper at my parent’s house recently where I had drawn the settings of different sounds and rhythms for our old organ. I was very devoted back then and I still am. From the electric organ it went on to playing the flute at first and then the guitar for a while and I also had a go at the electric bass. But I guess it wasn't until I was thirteen and my cousin bought a three channel mixer it really took off for me. We practiced day and night trying to get two tracks to blend together. We got some gigs at the local clubs, always trying to improve ourselves and to get gigs at bigger venues. I remember being 16 or so and I had my mom and dad drop me off and pick me up at all of these gigs at different clubs and parties where you needed to be at least 18-20 years to get in. My mom was pretty worried, my older sisters weren’t aloud to go to those places even when they were old enough…

The story about Pierre and me is that I released a record together with my friend Tobias (Pratap) on his HZ-trax label. We didn’t get to meet back then but a year later or so an old friend of mine called me about a resident spot at a nightclub in Gothenburg. I thought it sounded great because I had just moved back to Gothenburg after completing my studies. He told me I had to meet the man in charge of the bookings first, to get an approval. That "man in charge" was Pierre and from that point on we have been good friends.

What was the reason behind your decision, Pierre, to bring Petter on board with Hertz, having been so successful on your own?

Pierre: Well after working alone for many, many years, and when this very good friendship started, it was not hard to involve Petter. Apart from all work in the studio and gigs, it’s also a lot of work with myspace, facebook, bookings etc etc and to be two persons there, it’s just great.

How does the partnership work both in the studio and when playing gigs?

Pierre: In the studio it could be that Petter is doing stuff on his own that we finish in my studio. It could also be something I work on, or something that we start working on, fresh from start. The gigs is a bit different now. Most of the events, Petter is doing alone. But we’ve also done some together, and I’ve also been doing some alone. It depends on location and budget mostly. The most important is that we both are proud of the outcome of both releases and gigs. We prepare all music together for all gigs, even those that we do separate.

Petter: We are also quite similar in many ways, we both know what we like and what we don't like and we have no problem telling each other if something is bad or needs a fix. In that way we don't get stuck on silly details. We also seem to get off on the same kind of stuff in a song, a certain rhythm or sound that just makes it fly a bit higher than everything else.

The Hertz name is absolutely massive with techno lovers. To give us a flavor of that success, tell us what gigs have been played both before and since Hertz became a duo.

Pierre: For family reasons, all events have been in Europe. It has been everything from Awakenings & Dance Valley in Holland for 5-50.000 people to the massive Fabrik in Spain with 7000 people to outdoors event in Slovenia and Croatia headlining together with other top DJs like Umek, Danny Tenaglia, Richie Hawtin, Adam Beyer, Ben Sims and many more.

Petter: Right now we are booked for gigs in Amsterdam and I think Macedonia besides this one in the UK. This summer we’ve done some gigs in Spain, Slovenia and Sweden.

Having both been producing and DJing since the 90’s your set up must be fantastic! What does it consist of?

Pierre: 10 years ago I had a massive +100.000 pounds studio with over 40 synths and 80 channel mixingdesk but today, with all software, you basiclly just needs two 24-inch sceens and one massive computer, in my case Apple. I’ts not so sexy but it’s working like a dream.

Petter: I´ve had my share of analogue equipment even if it can’t be compared to the setup Pierre had, he was one of a kind back then. Right now I got a pretty similar setup to Pierre, a good soundcard, a mac pro and some monitors. Everything is hooked up to my DJ equipment to easily try out if the stuff I work on fits in the mix.

How have things changed since you started making tracks, equipment wise, and how has this influenced the music you make?

Pierre: Before, I was very analogue in everything but now when I have total recall on everything is fantastic. I don’t think that people really understand what type of work it was back then and how impossible it was to re-do a track some weeks later. I played around a lot more before and tried many things but with all this experience, you can re-do it today digital. When you have the knowledge how it was done analogue, you can use this in the digital world.

Petter: Nowadays you don’t need to think of hardware limitations in the same way you had to before. But as Pierre implies, sometimes limitations can be good, you are then forced to work things out and find new ways. At times, when I get stuck on stuff, I go back working as if I had a hardware studio, recording bits and pieces. That way I have to decide early on I want to keep and then work with a limited amount of audio tracks instead of a big rack of synths and effects.

What made you decide, Pierre, to move away from the big labels and go independent?

Pierre: From start 2001 I just had enough with all that crap. Also, the business side of things, mp3 etc was really a big thing. No money was throwing around anymore for remixes and such in the same way as before. So I simply decided, after +200 records, that it was time to start to do the things I really loved myself. Everything from house to deep techhouse and techno.

And why did you decide to go the underground techno route? – it’s assumed that most dance music producers dream of working for big artists like Brittany and Beyonce once they reach the level of success that you did but you seem to have deliberately gone in the opposite direction.

Pierre: Because I love it. It’s a pleasure to do what you like. I’ve been into electronic music since early 80s. But when I, as a 22 year old kid, made a big name out of commercial music, I just continued to work and that’s it. Happy to have music as my work. Even if I wasn’t into the commercial music so much myself. For me it was the best possible start in life to earn a lot of money from this commercial side but then, it’s great to go back to the roots and take the next step, in my case, club music and techno.

How did your labels respond to the digital explosion and, now that it is well and truly established, how are they run today?

Pierre: Well we all needed to go down that road as this is truly the future. We do the same work as before with artwork and stuff so there is no major big difference. We are out on beatport, juno and track it down at the moment.

If I were an up-and-coming producer do you have any advice on how to get my tracks from the bedroom to the dance floor?

Petter: Listen to the stuff you like, pick about 4-5 tracks you think represent what you want to do. Analyze those tracks; try to find out what makes them special. Go in to you production tool of choice and try to get that same feeling. Compare your work with those 4-5 tracks and be critical. “Kill your darlings” is a mantra you should repeat over and over…

What was the first track both of you made (singly) and would you still play it today?!

Pierre: My first tracks I did, and still have recorded is from 1984. They were done on Roland TR-606 and Korg MS-20 mainly. I wouldn’t say that they are great in any way, and no, I can’t play them as they are, but I will sample some of them in the near future because some sounds are really cool in there.

Petter: My first complete production was some kind of house-tech-loop-thing I did to use as a tool in my dj-sets. I did it out of samples using Fast tracker II and my MC-505 I had at the time. I also did some funny stuff using a 4 channel tape porta studio a bit earlier. Recorded 4 channels, bounced them together, added another 3 and kept on like that. I guess I wouldn’t dream playing that stuff out loud today!

What was the first track you made together and how difficult or easy was it working together?

Petter: The first thing we did was some re-edits of Pierre’s earlier work and a couple of remixes. The first actual production made from scratch that got released was the track called “In Time” released on Sway.

Has the Hertz sound changed since Petter came on board or were your sounds very similar in the first place?

Petter: The sound of techno is constantly evolving and changing. Of course the sound of Hertz has changed since it became a duo. If it’s due to the fact that we teamed up or due to the influences of the techno being made at the moment is hard to say. We talk about this a lot, what the next big thing will be and we have deliberately gone away from the “old” Hertz sound. Since few people do that “old school hard techno” nowadays we have adapted our DJ-sets to what’s released, the sound of our productions walks hand in hand with our DJ-sets. Our main goal when producing is to make tracks that would fit in our DJ-set at the moment.

Do both still work independently of each other?

Petter: Yes and no. Everything we do we send back and fourth to get a second opinion. Even if it is a house release, a remix or something that would end up being released as Hertz. We talk on the phone a couple of times every day, discussing embryos of new tracks or cool new releases.

Where would you like to take Hertz in the future?

Petter: I have had my goal since 96 pretty clear to me; I want to be on stage together with Carl Cox, after that I can die a happy man. Right now I don’t see any limits to what we can do in the future. Pierre’s massive experience and knowledge combined with my good looks will hopefully take us where ever we want to go. ;)

And does that future include t-t-t-techno?

Petter: Hertz will always be techno in one way or another. As I said before, the sounds constantly change and our intention is to stay on top and try to keep on doing our thing.

SEE YOU ALL AT PARTY PROACTIVE ON SAT 3RD OCT AT AREA, LONDON

LAST EVENT OF 2009!